Posts Tagged: pork belly

These are some of the pix we didn’t use in the new book, Ruhlman’s Twenty, and I wanted to share them because they make me hungry for pork belly. But when I sat down simply to mention this dish, Crispy Pork Belly with Miso-Caramel Glaze, it surprised me with all the lessons it has wrapped up in it. First of all, it’s a delicious dish (I was delighted that Rob Misfud, in his review of the book in Toronto’s Globe and Mail, tried it and loved it—while it’s not difficult, it’s more involved than most of the other recipes in the book). But go below the deliciousness and you will see it’s a lesson in braising, in understanding the nature of pork skin, of the power of sugar, of using a definitively sweet ingredient in a Read On »

It is time again to bring out The Chicken-Fried Pork Belly Salad, which I created in August 2007 in the midst of my fury at the chief icon of American restaurant food: The Chicken Caesar. Today’s post was sparked by Sam Sifton’s NYTimes magazine column on the Caesar salad, which addresses the fact that few dishes are truly authentic, and he uses the Caesar salad as an example. For me putting a chicken breast on a perfectly good Caesar is an emblem of American mediocrity, a lack of imagination, and our fear of food (The Shame of the Chicken Caesar Salad). But Sifton, while he makes the unconscionable error of failing to include my Chicken Fried Pork Belly Casear in his list of famous variations, does us a service by telling us a freeing truth: Read On »

It’s the only way to redeem the catastrophe of the Chicken Caesar. Wed it with pork belly that has been briefly cured, then gently poached in fat, cooled in fat, then sliced, breaded and deep-fried. I want to say it again: Pork belly confit, deep-fried. Oh, man it is soooo good. Following what I think is an extraordinary thread of comments on the Caesar Salad in America, for which I want to express huge thanks to those who took the time to write and argue; all of you help me to know what I think and I hope think better, and I am grateful—I humbly introduce … The Chicken Fried Pork Belly Caesar. I didn’t do the croutons because of the crispy nature of the pork but Donna suggested that for a truly innovative interpretation, Read On »